My Guardian Angel Is Overworked and Underpaid!

Thank you for saving me again my guardian angel, how many lives do I have left?  I never thought that after my lovely episode on Friday night that I would be silently fighting for my life a few nights later, nor did the staff at the hospital think I was in any great danger when the paramedics brought me in. 

After Friday's little date (if you read my blog about that exciting date you know what I am talking about). On Saturday we actually went out grocery shopping, then on Sunday, not only did we take my sister out to purchase a new TV but we also went to my mom's for dinner and helped her with a few things  around her place... okay my husband did the work...mom and I chatted.  I know it does not sound like a lot but to someone who is chronically ill that is like doing a major workout and takes a lot out of you, but I was doing good and feeling fine.

Monday and a new week has begun nothing earth shattering during the day, but as my husband and I sat down to watch the late news I suddenly turned to him and said I need to go lie down as I was not feeling well....hopefully I can settle myself down enough that my system would not go into a major spasm, I know this feeling well.  About 10 minutes later my left arm started to twist... now I am not double jointed in any way shape or form but that was literally what my left arm did, it twisted like a person that can do this gross maneuver (in my mind anyway it's gross...sorry to those that think it's cool).  The pain was blinding and my husband was trying desperately to get it to straighten out with no luck...and at the same time  trying  to keep it from twisting even more which although he knew he was causing me pain he and I were worried that it was going to snap in two.    A good 20 minutes of this self inflicted torture endured before my arm started to slowly turn itself around,  and although my arm had turned the right way around  the muscles still felt as if they were being pulled off the bone.
An hour later and finally exhausted from  the pain I had endured and  as my prized and dwindling medication kicked in I fell asleep.

 Two hours later and I awoke to that same feeling in my arm of my muscles being ripped from the bone  but only in my bicep muscle.  As I went to get up I was suddenly violently ill...this woke my husband up and I told him to call 911, thinking maybe I have a blood clot in my muscle from the strain earlier that night.  By the time the paramedics had arrived my torso or as I like to call it my "alien love child" had decided to join the torture party.  As the paramedics worked on taking my vitals and see what was going on they were perplex to see that although my blood pressure was slightly elevated, my pulse was strong and was in the range it should be,  I was having no chest pain or shortness of breath except when the spasms hit my stomach they could not understand what they were seeing.  Finally as my muscles looked as if they had stopped they hooked me up to do an EKG,  but could not get a reading as my muscles would start up again and I could not get them to stay still long enough to get a proper reading.

After a bit of a discussion it was decided that they would take me in to the ER just as a precaution but they did not think I had, had a heart attack, but having witnessed my muscles doing what they do, they were worried about the strain that alone was having on my system.   We had explained to them as best we could that I have an un-diagnosed muscle condition that we believe to be Stiff Person Syndrome and  how I was having such a hard time getting diagnosed, with some doctors saying yes and others saying no. 

We arrived slowly but surely to  the hospital,  no sirens no rush to admit me as I was not in immediate danger when we arrived.  I was talking and joking with them and was feeling fine my system was settling down again.  As they are talking to admitting BAM another major spasm hits big difference this time in the ER compared to all the other times I've been..they  had been looking up Stiff Person Syndrome and this time they did start putting diazepam , then they tried ativan in my  IV, hoping that would stop the spasms from occurring they also gave me morphine for pain.  Much later and I am talking to the nurse still sore but the vast majority of the spasms were subsiding. A tech comes in to do the EKG that they have been trying to do for hours as my muscles are calmed enough to not give a false reading.  About a half hour later the doctor comes to see me and says to me and I quote "there are heart attacks and there are heart attacks, you had one but nothing to worry about it was mild."  We will try and get you to another hospital tomorrow or the next day to do a angiogram to see what is going on, with the strain on your system from those muscle spasms you've probably have a bit of damage but it doesn't show as anything major.  Now for those of you who don't know I too was not concerned  I have had a heart attack in the past with a block artery of 65% so I knew what he meant and I was in no distress with my heart (or so we thought) so I knew if they were not worried neither was I. 

They found me a room, had a portable heart monitor on me for the day and night which allowed me to get up and come and go as I pleased.  If anything should change they would see and had me scheduled for the next day to go have a angiogram.  I told Chris to head home and get some sleep as there was nothing more to be done and I was tired and hoped with all these drugs in me I too would finally get some sleep. Later that night my girlfriend happen to call me on my cell which was with me and even came down for a visit and she can tell you I was in no great danger.

Next day I am taking by ambulance to the other hospital and kept getting bumped for my angiogram by more urgent cases.  Finally I am rolled in hours after I was scheduled to hear the doctor say your RCA is 100% blocked.  For those of you that don't know the heart's anatomy let me explain what that means. the artery that keeps blood pumping to your heart on the right side of your heart and also supplies the blood to your lungs is completely block! They are amazed I had no outward signs of any kind, except for the one time of being sick two days before.   As I explained three stents later in recovery and later to the staff back at my 1st hospital I have been in so much pain and distress with my muscle condition that to me it was just another episode like all the ones I have endured this past year especially because they are getting worse.  Only difference this time I listen to my intuition and my guardian angel and did go with the paramedics instead of turning them away like I have in the past.    Why would I do that they asked... because every time I have come to the ER not only this hospital but to  different hospitals in the city I keep getting told nothing is wrong and I get sent back home. Would you yourself not give up (funny no one answered my question).

The outcome is I am home recovering.  I'm still having muscle spasms which now scare me even more than before. They agreed in the hospital that my muscle spasms are definitely a neurological problem,  and at least now they have been recorded by the staff at the hospital who saw them with their own two eyes and saw how violent they are.  They also witnessed and recorded my "drunk walk" the day after my angioplasty due to the stress I think is why that started. 

Besides all the wonderful drugs one has to take so your body will not reject the stents they gave me more diazepam for the month  so I won't run out and to help me with my spasms until I can see my new neurologist come October 22.

When I go will he understand this strange and complex syndrome and give me the help I need?  I am praying so... I don't think I have many lives left and I'm sure I played my guardian angel out last week keeping me alive.

It was meant to be the day I go home my nurse's name was Chris!